The jackpot for Saturday night's Powerball drawing currently stands at $600 million. That's just $56 million less than the record from the March 2012 Mega Millions jackpot, which was split by three winning tickets.

Should nobody pick the correct five white balls and one red ball, the jackpot will roll over to Wednesday. Then, the jackpot will almost certainly hit record levels.

But even if it doesn't roll over and somebody wins Saturday, the prize could conceivably reach $656 million or higher because of a flurry of last-minute sales.

One reason for the recent surge: California last month joined 42 other states that play Powerball.